1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to card edge connector assembly, and particularly to the connectors arrangement in both vertical and horizontal directions simultaneously for being adapted to receive four cards within a dense space.
2. The Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 5,514,002 discloses a so-called Mini SIMM connector, of which a variation is a so-called SO DIMM connector, both of which are receiving memory modules therein. It can be appreciated that it is desired to have plural memory modules in the computer, so it is required to use the limited space in the computer while providing as many connectors as possible to receive such plurality of modules.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,697,802, 5,755,585 and 5,833,478 disclose the so-called stacked type connector assembly regardless of whether the connector housings thereof are of the integral type or the separate type, whereby only the minimum region is required on the mother board on which the connector assembly is seated. Differently, U.S. Pat. No. 5,882,211 discloses one regular type simplex connector and one reverse type simplex connector face to face mounted on the mother board with a plurality of parallel circuit traces each connected between one contact of the regular type connector and another contact of the reverse type connector. It can be understood that the former sacrifices the height of the computer to achieve the smaller horizontal dimension of the computer, while the latter sacrifices the horizontal area to achieve the thinner size of the computer. Understandably, regardless of whether either the former or the latter has its own advantages and disadvantages, both these two kinds of arrangement are essentially of one dimensional extension for expansion, i.e., either the vertical way or the horizontal way.
It is also noted that in U.S. Pat. No. 5,882,211, the two horizontally lying opposite connectors are sharing the same circuit traces on the mother board, and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,697,802, the two vertically stacked connector units are sharing the same unitarily formed contacts and the corresponding circuit traces on the mother board, so that the manufacturing may become easy.
Based on increasing of the functions and speed requirements of the computer, there is a desired to have more than two memory modules installed in the computer, for example, four memory modules being required thereof, so it is critical for the computer designer to efficiently arrange the multiple connectors/modules in such a limited space in the computer.
Therefore, an object of the invention is to provide the connector assembly which is adapted to receive more than two memory modules in a dense space in the computer case wherein the connector assembly is arranged to extend in both the vertical and horizontal directions wherein the arrangement along the vertical direction is of a stacked type which is generally disclosed in the copending application having the title "DUPLEX PROFILE CONNECTOR ASSEMBLY" filed Feb. 4, 2000 with a Ser. No. 09/498,828, and having the same assignee with the invention.